U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin are pushing Secretary of State John Kerry to fight the Canadian government’s plan to build a huge nuclear waste dump near the Lake Huron shoreline.

Numerous local officials in Michigan and Ontario have come together to oppose the proposed site, but Stabenow and Levin are hoping to make the plan an international issue. In a letter to Kerry, their former colleague, the two Democratic senators warned the potential of a spill or contamination could devastate the Great Lakes $7 billion dollar fishing industry, hurt the overall Michigan economy and severely damage environmentally sensitive areas.

Michigan law prohibits disposing of low-level nuclear waste within ten miles of the Great Lakes but the underground disposal site planned for Kincardine, Ont., is less than a mile from the lakeshore, north of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.

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“The Great Lakes are a highly valued resource to eight states and two countries,” the letter to Kerry said. “The future health and prosperity of the Great Lakes is an extremely serious matter. We would appreciate a prompt response explaining how you plan to work with the Canadian government and the International Joint Commission, or IJC, to ensure that this nuclear waste repository is not built near the shores of Lake Huron.”

Stabenow and Levin initially wrote Kerry in October 2013, urging him to prevent construction of the nuclear waste dump by confronting Canadian officials in Ottawa and the IJC, the organization formed by the U.S. and Canada to resolve issues between the nations along shared border waters. His response was silent regarding the request to engage the IJC in negotiations.

The plan calls for burial of 7 million cubic feet of nuclear waste, much of which will be transported by water on the Great Lakes, in the “deep geological depository.”

Meanwhile, a Michigan group dedicated to clean waters released a report that found nearly 1.8 million pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped into Michigan waterways in 2012.

The Environment Michigan Research and Policy Center reported last week industrial facilities discharged approximately 31,000 pounds of chemicals linked to cancer into the Great Lakes in 2012—the sixth highest amount in the country.

“Michigan’s waterways should be clean –- for swimming, drinking, and supporting wildlife,” said Dominick DeFazio, campaign coordinator with Environment Michigan. “But too often, our waters have become a dumping ground for polluters. The first step to curb this tide of toxic pollution is to restore Clean Water Act protections to all our waterways.”

Environment Michigan’s report warned of cancer-causing chemicals, toxins that persist in the environment, and contaminants with the potential to cause reproductive problems ranging from birth defects to infertility. The toxics dumped in Michigan can also lead to developmental problems in children, affecting the way they grow, learn, and behave.

The report recommends restoring federal Clean Water Act protections to all of Michigan’s waters.

As a result of court cases brought by industry, nearly 24,000 miles of streams in Michigan -- and 1.4 million Michiganders’ drinking water -- are now at risk of having no protection from pollution under the Clean Water Act.

This spring the EPA proposed a rule to close longtime loopholes that have left some of Michigan’s waterways unprotected but the proposed clean-water rule faces vigorous opposition from a wide range of business interests.